Quite a few people are expressing concern over MSM figure fudging this past week and more on the Labour Party and taxes. This might help to allay fears.

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I know, I know, numbers are BORING 😉 or maybe even scary!

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But facts are your weapon against media foam™ so hang on in there, I’ll try and make it as easy as possible 🙂

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LABOUR AND TAXES:

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The £70,000 figure currently being bandied all over the MSM is a possible figure being looked at but the top tax rate will not be put on people till they’re earning £150,000, (currently 45%, the LP are thinking about raising it to 50%). Even the Telegraph on 19th April 2017 (well known Conservative mouthpiece) are saying that this figure is being ‘hinted at’ by McDonnell.

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SO WHAT WOULD THIS MEAN?

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A 2p raise for every £1 on those people if it is implemented for those earning over £70,000 on a sliding scale up to 50p for those earning £150,000 and over.

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It’s not policy (yet), and bear in mind this would include all MPs if it was raised for those earning that much. something most I think have called for more than once 😉

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ALSO BEAR IN MIND:

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The average wage in this country is £28,000 according to the Office of National Statistics but that doesn’t tell the story either- over 80% of us don’t even earn even 2/3 of that. Four in five new jobs are in sectors averaging under £16,640 for a 40-hour week.

In 2015, working full-time on the £6.31 hourly minimum wage would gross just £13,124 in a year.

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******People on this amount are being charged 20p for every £1 the second they earn over £11,000 gross at the mo. (see below for more on this)******

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The Telegraph were forced to write in their election coverage in 2015 that the Conservatives wanted the tax raise to start at £50,000, affecting lower earners far more than their rich mates. (Why haven’t I linked the 2017 manifestos? Because they’re not out yet, when they are they will be added.)

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This affects FAR more than the 20% of the population that Labour are suggesting they could charge 2p more.

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So IMO we need to look at what the CONSERVATIVES are doing.

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We have seen May announce this week yet more tax increases on lower earners should the Cons win this election, that even Daily Mail pollsters showed caused a drop in support for them of more than 12%! (But see my blogs, like this one about polls!)

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So let’s NOT worry about a possible tax rate suggested by the LP of an increase of 2p that would only fall on less than 20% of the country i.e. those earning above £70,000.

We will create a fairer tax system, helping those on middle and lower incomes by introducing a lower 10p starting rate of tax, paid for by ending the Conservatives’ Marriage Tax Allowance. We will not increase the basic or higher rates of Income Tax or National Insurance. Nor will we raise VAT, and we renew our pledge not to extend it to food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers or public transport fares.

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

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Well 10p of every £1 is 10%.

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Currently people on £20,000 gross (for example) pay tax and NI totalling over £3200. The starting rate is a sliding scale.

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You are only taxed on your taxable income (anything over £11,000) not the whole £20,000, so for someone on £20,000, only £9000 of that income is taxed at £1,800 which is 20%!

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So a 10% rate that the Labour party want would halve your tax bill to £900!

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Your NI would still be about £1400, so your total paid would drop to £2300- but £900 extra a year would make a big difference to people’s lives.

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Figures currently for 2017 are here if you want to check how much YOU are really paying rather than what the papers TELL you that you’re paying!

on BILLS WE PAY (like gas and electricity- and guess who had that orchestrated and brought THAT in, in 1994? Here’s the document! RP97-87 John Major who last time I looked was a Conservative) and who fought very hard to stop it? Labour!

on loans and that, no matter how much we earn

not only that who put VAT up to 20%? Here’s the document! SN05620 George Osborne, in 2011, and last time I checked HE was a Conservative too!

Who seems to want toincrease VAT 2.5% to 22.5%? The current ConservativeChancellor, Philip Hammond. See below for how unethical and unfair this is!

which is really unfair, and many of us also pay Council tax, car ‘tax’ etc. It is known fact that the Labour Party are far more for taxing income that having a flat rate of purchasing tax that hits the poor hardest. More on this below:

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The core problem with VAT – taxing consumption – for the left is that it treats rich and poor alike; it is a tax on discrete bits of stuff or services; it does not take into account how much you had in the first place. And, consistent with that view, Corbyn has a long history of voting against increases to VAT.

Firstly, Corbyn’s plans for The Economy in 2020, appear to be based on the assumption that there is currently £120bn of uncollected tax in the UK annually – and that a Corbyn regime would be able to recover those amounts in full:

A detailed analysis last year produced by Richard Murphy suggests that the government is missing out on nearly £120bn in tax revenues, per year. That’s enough to double the NHS budget; enough to give every man, woman and child in this country £2,000. The £120bn figure is made up from:

• about £20bn in tax debt, uncollected by HMRC which continues to suffer budget and staffing cuts (only partially reversed in the last Budget)

Try being on £15,000 and saying ‘well I’m not paying this year’! You’d be fined and in court in WEEKS!

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What is actually costing the country the most money?

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As Corbyn has also said many times, he wants the tax burden to fall on those with the broadest shoulders to bear it, not the poor and people just about managing.

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Ok, the ‘bedroom tax’ isn’t a ‘tax’ strictly speaking but it acts like one, taking money from source before people get it.

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In Corbyn’s speech to the Federation of Small Businesses about 2 weeks ago, for example, he made his attitude to taxes (personal and business) very clear. Here’s a link to the full transcript from the LP press office and for a ‘left’ analysis of it look here.

Any tax rises will fall most heavily on those with the broadest shoulders and will be a something-for-something deal. When we ask for more contributions we’ll be clear about what you’re getting in return.

Secondly, we want to level the playing field to ensure that no one is being held back due to unfair advantages of the economically and politically powerful using their entrenched positions to hold back the enterprise of others.

And, finally, we will invest to give you the best platform to succeed, with world-leading infrastructure: digital, transport and energy, as well as better access to growth capital, whether it is through loans or equity.

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BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BORROWING LABOUR DO?

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Here is a handy little graphic from Eoin Clarke, who has a PhD in History from QUB (and us historians KNOW how to research- it’s our JOB! 🙂 ) to show you just HOW the Labour Party will pay for their reforms to the current system for 2017 and beyond. All the ‘right wing’ outlets like the Spectator, Guido Fawkes and the like, loathe him so he must be doing something right too!) Not seeing much ‘borrowing’ here:

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Want more facts and figures?

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Here we see that the Cons have borrowed TWENTY FIVE PER CENT more than Labouron average for every year they’ve been in Government.

And the 2017 ones. (They call them ‘budgets’ but we know what they REALLY are.)

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The INDEPENDENT body, the IFS- Institute for Fiscal Studies– have concluded the Conservatives are now making the largest cuts since the 1950s. And what massive factor caused ‘belt tightening’ in the 50’s? Only bl**dy World War II!

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So I ask again, where is the money going? With the VAT rise, and the borrowing?

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Take a guess. 99% of us will never see a penny of it again.

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DON’T RELY ON THE MSM.

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DO YOUR OWN FACT CHECKING!

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But hopefully this helps to clear up any misunderstandings and also counter the narrative that the LP are a high tax: high borrow party.

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Who has done the damage? Who needs to go? Take another guess.

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And today (01/05/17) one of the most toxic accusations against Labour is that they caused the ‘crash’ and emptied the Treasury. Well, (and the timing in my opinion is most interesting) this has now thoroughly been debunked. Now while it is clear that they could have put stronger controls on the banks, and banks globally are complicit in the global double dip depression. But no one country, or party, was responsible for this and the sooner this weapon of the Conservatives is neutralised the better. And even the BBC have had to admit that Labour did not bankrupt the country,